Issue 104 – March 2015
PATHS IN TIME by Stephen Guy, West Derby Society FOOTPATHS and tracks provide alternatives to walking along busy roads and are important aids to health and wellbeing. Statistics show that most British adults are either overweight or obese and increasing numbers of children. Walking was once a widespread activity both out of necessity and as a cheap way to relax. I interviewed the late Alfred Wainwright whose books about Lake District and other hikes are best sellers. However, you don’t have to go far for enjoy a walk – your front door is a good place to start. Descriptions of walks from long ago now make fascinating reading. Two from the 1920s are of particular interest. The first describes leaving West Derby Village: “Turn round to the right into Meadow Lane, winding between the village school and the churchyard wall and you are immediately in the country. “Just where this lane ends, at a lodge and gateway, you will find a little turnstile on the left, beyond which runs for some distance a well-kept path between groves and hedges until it brings you into the highway called Hornspit Lane. “The scattered houses here are indeed very picturesque. They are mostly of durable old
red brick, partly matted with ivy. “Each has its small orchard and well-kept kitchen garden within close hedges of healthily thriving evergreens. “The larger houses are surrounded by well-stocked barns with rain-washed stone stairs leading to high, dark lofts. “Behind frosty panes kitchen fires are burning brightly, and not one of them but looks a cosy rooftree to which one would gladly return on a winter’s evening.” Another involves the tram to Knotty Ash: “Straight in front as you leave the car a narrow path between railings opens in the fields to the left, past the Carmelite convent. “At the end of the path turn to the right for a few yards, and then to the left along Leyfield Road. “Coming down Leyfield Road, a footpath [pictured] will be found turning to the right round the garden hedge of a thatched cottage, and opposite a finger-post showing the way to Eaton Road. “Taking this facing towards the open country, and follow it as it winds between the hedges, past West Derby golf links, and until you come to the isolated Mab Lane Farm …” Join the West Derby Society at its next meeting 7.30 pm on Wednesday 18 March at Lowlands, 13 Haymans Green, Liverpool L12 7JG.